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Suddenly Elros's chest heaved, and he closed his eyes, clenching the letter tightly in his hand. He reached up with his free hand to hide his eyes, to hide the tears that had begun to form.

Earendil was frightened by the man's response to the letter. Was he going to be all right?

At last, Elros forced himself to speak.

"I - I am sorry," he whispered hoarsely, wiping at his eyes and looking down at Lin. "I must ... I must read this letter immediately."

He patted Lin's hand gently, then brushed past her and rushed down the hall, away from everyone else.

Everyone was silent for a moment, until suddenly Maeglin spoke up.

"What ... was that?" she asked in disbelief.

Earendil was still confused.

"Alena didn't react like that when we told her that Elros was still alive, did she?" he asked Lin, tilting his head slightly. "I mean ... she was surprised, and she was happy ... but ..."

It didn't make sense to him either. There had to be something that they were missing.

As usual.

"It does seem that way," Earendil nodded. "Especially where people from the past are concerned. But perhaps we can speak with him later, once he has calmed down a bit."

He looked down at Maeglin. "We should return to the others," he told her quietly.

Maeglin nodded. "This way."

When they arrived back at the sitting room, everyone else had already arrived: Elwin, Amora's husband, was now sitting next to her, with Lalwen on his lap; Pengolodh, now a tall man of twenty six years of age, was chatting with Kelirahc and Leyenda; Celebrindor, now seventeen, and Egleriad were talking with Caranthir, and Lothiriel herself had also arrived and was chatting with Aerin. Estel was talking with Aurin and Rhea, and Amalirahc was playing on the floor with someone's slipper that he had apparently stolen from them.

Earendil had no idea where to begin either, so he simply sat down in the nearest empty seat. He looked up at Lin. "Might as well put Miyuki on the floor," he suggested. "Not much chance of her getting out of here unnoticed. And it doesn't look as though there's a lot that she can get into either."

It was as good a place as any.

"Oh," he added, holding out the bonnet to her, "and she dropped this earlier."

Earendil chuckled softly. "Looks like you're not too pleased with it either," he grinned at her, leaning back in his seat. His smile faded slightly as he started thinking back to Elros's reaction to the letter. He was worried about the man - and curious to know what was going on.

"Blackmailed?" Earendil stared at Lin. "Don't tell me you used to wear frilly stuff like that ..."

He looked away again. "But yes, I'm afraid we may have set something else off again. Alena did not react that much ... and it makes me wonder exactly what it was that was going on between them when they parted ways."

He shrugged. "I don't know him at all, but you seemed more shocked than I was when he reacted that way, which tells me that even you didn't expect him to react so badly."